Unless Congress or the courts intervene, a postal rate surcharge in place since

Sounds like great news for direct marketers, right? And in many ways it is. But what about the Postal Service’s claim that the rollback will increase its annual net losses by $2 billion, hampering its ability to operate effectively? Will we see changes in the future as USPS struggles to deliver innovation and quality?

We checked in with Truman Pope, chief of American Litho’s lettershop, for his thoughts on the rollback and what lies ahead.

As you can see, this isn’t a true rate reduction and it’s definitely not something the Postal Service wants. The Postal Regulatory Commission, or PRC, set a very specific limit on the exigent surcharge put in place to help the Postal Service recover from plunging revenues in the wake of the Great Recession. But the Postmaster General says it didn’t begin to cover the huge drop in revenue, which spanned several years and reached $7 billion in 2009 alone.

The PRC gained broader powers in 2006 when Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. The idea was to hold USPS fully accountable for the efficiency and quality of its operations, which would in turn keep rates down and prevent price volatility. Prior to this, rate hikes were all over the place, making it really hard for direct marketers to plan and budget effectively. Leaders in our industry pretty much feel that the PRC’s oversight has led to greater rate stability and efficiency at USPS. We’ll know more about that when the Postal Service undergoes a 10-year review in 2016 as required by the Act.

It will be interesting to see what the quality review shows. We’ve heard USPS say that, even though revenues are down drastically, they haven’t laid workers off. In fact, they have more full-time employees now than they did 2 years ago. In 2017, postal officials may head to Congress and deliver the message that, essentially, they’re performing well but suffering financially, which could block their ability to innovate. No one has a crystal ball to foresee how lawmakers will respond, but we’ll be watching closely.

It does feel like rates will be the pink elephant in the room. All of us look forward to hearing what Postmaster General Megan Brennan says about the Postal Service’s health going forward. Our industry obviously wants to see rates remain stable. Managing workflows and labor and materials costs are all mandates we have to follow to stay in business, so it stands to reason that USPS as our partner should do the same.

It’s a great opportunity to reach more prospects and customers with the same budget dollars. Put the savings together with postal discounts for mailings that incorporate mobile engagement and multi-sensory techniques and you’ve got a total winner. Whatever your goal, we’re ready to help.

Ready to get started? 

Contact us NOW – we’re here to help!

Ask a question or share a few details about an upcoming project. 

"*" indicates required fields

Δ

Truman Pope is American Litho’s senior manager of lettershop services. With 25+ years in the business, he works in close partnership with USPS and our full direct marketing team to deliver efficiency and savings for clients in all industries. Reach him through our Contact Us page.

Specifics on the postal rate rollback can be found here. If you’d like to share your views on rates and related trends with USPS, use this email link: [email protected]

The post Perspectives on the USPS rate rollback appeared first on Alitho.

Ever heard of the 7 P’s that are part of the preparedness strategy used by the U.S. Marines? It’s all about being ready when the big challenges come your way.

Success with any print-based marketing campaign depends on having a detailed map of where you’re headed and the best tools and strategies to help you get there. With this in mind, we recently hosted the first American Litho University – our own boot camp for building your brand.

Our 2-day event in Carol Stream wasn’t quite as tough as what they dish out at Parris Island or San Diego. But every participant came away with a new understanding of print planning, production, logistics and more – elements that lay the groundwork for strong performance.

• Planning and teamwork for results
• Defining campaign objectives
• The value of accurate data
• Marketing to the 5 senses

We enjoyed the opportunity to show clients from all vertical markets how our services contribute to success with both print and multichannel initiatives. Open discussions created a lively exchange of questions and ideas – a forum that enriched and extended the learning for all of us.

On Day 1, format optimization expert Sharon Rubar (above left) and Sam Dentino (above right) showed the group what can happen when we collaborate early in the game, studying and testing alternate formats that can help jobs run more efficiently for postage and print savings and faster cycle times.

Tim Gaw (above right) gave participants a close-up view of pre-press functions and how they deliver precise quality control and beautiful, on-time results. Dave Deschryver (above left) walked us through the in-line manufacturing process, taking us down to the production floor to demonstrate how major jobs come together. Along the way, the group made stops in 7 departments essential to our work: web, sheet-fed and digital production areas plus wide-format production, lettershop, pick-and-pack and fulfillment.

Dwayne Martinez (above left), our merchandising and packaging guru, dug into the topic of developing clear goals that can lead to success with new technologies that integrate print, direct mail, mobile and in-store promotions. Our lettershop’s role in postage optimization and effective logistics came through in a focused tour given by Truman Pope (above right).

The advent of multichannel marketing means an even greater focus on accurate data as a driver of success.

Rob Glaza’s presentation on Day 2 explained the processes we use to optimize customer data and how these integrate with best practices in postal logistics for total mailing efficiency.

Rick Mazur (above left) from Kodak wowed the group with examples of 4-color, data-driven variable imaging for eye-popping, personalized offers. Dave Sullivan (above right) of Sappi introduced us to the neuroscience of touch – giving new insights into the power of texture added to postcards, catalogs, in-store collateral and more.

Like Marine boot camp, we think ALitho University was a great workout for everyone. But even if you couldn’t join us, we’re ready to help you tap the full range of knowledge and resources here at ALitho to reach your brand-building objectives. Let us know if you’d like to attend a future session. Semper Fi!

Ready to get started? 

Contact us NOW – we’re here to help!

"*" indicates required fields

Δ

The post Boot camp for brand builders appeared first on Alitho.

Seeing the big picture across all channels of your marketing program is a constant challenge. That’s why we’re intrigued by a new analytical tool we recently previewed with our U.S. Postal Service representative here in Carol Stream.

USPS’ new Marketing Impact Calculator, or MIC, is designed to help any business with $1 million or more in annual sales to measure the lift created by direct mail within a multi-channel marketing strategy.

USPS developed this iPad-based tool in partnership with Universal McCann, a leader in advanced marketing analytics. It’s powered by big data reflecting the real results of Fortune 500 companies who use a mix of outbound and inbound web, social media, and traditional channels along with direct mail.

MIC is now being used by USPS reps in face-to-face meetings to develop actionable insights for leading brands in virtually any industry. A MIC analysis can do two crucial things for you:

• Create clear, concise projections of the sales lift you can gain from direct mail as part of your current multichannel strategy
• Evaluate direct mail’s potential ROI for your specific company using multiple measures and reveal ways to make your current program even stronger

This kind of analysis sounds like it should take days, but with MIC it happens in minutes. Your USPS rep begins by entering your real or estimated spending across 11 marketing channels – everything from email campaigns to online search to print, TV and radio advertising plus direct mail.

Then your rep uses information on your company’s direct mail activities, including total spend, the mailing format you most commonly use, and mailing list size plus the number of touches per year. Two levels of spending can be entered to compare two campaigns, customer groups or budgets. You can even compare zero direct mail spending to any given budget.

Your rep fills in the picture with the average selling price of your product, the average times per year customers buy, expected profit margin, average response rates, and sales conversion rates.

With this data entered, MIC creates fast insights based on both levels of direct mail spending. You can see the projected total annual sales you can expect, along with the annual and lifetime revenue value of a single new customer gained through the mail. The allowable spend per new customer acquired is also calculated, including printing, postage, and creative expenses. All calculations are aimed at homing in on ROI and are based not only on your company’s own experience but that of leading brands nationwide.

A MIC analysis will add perspective to the hard numbers your analytics team has already developed. It’s a solid starting point in answering the biggest question that every multichannel marketing team must ask itself: what EXACTLY can direct mail do to help us grow sales and profits?

We like the fact that the entire report can be securely emailed to you for discussion with your team and updated anytime. It’s also great that you’ll be sitting across the desk from the USPS pro who can answer a huge range of questions for you.

MIC is free, confidential, and offered directly through your USPS rep. We hope you’ll take advantage of it and the other multichannel programs USPS is offering now, including the 2015 Mobile Drives Mail discounts we wrote about in a recent post.

Our only job is to help you build your brand.

Ready to get started? 

Contact us NOW – we’re here to help!

Sam Dentino and Frank Arostegui are American Litho’s dynamic duo of direct marketing, bringing more than 40 years of combined experience to their roles. They work with the full ALitho team to serve clients in retail, financial services, insurance, consumer goods manufacturing, non-profit development, and many other fields.

"*" indicates required fields

Δ

The post How hard are ALL your marketing dollars working? appeared first on Alitho.

Do some elements of your brand-building plan belong in a museum?

Probably not. But just think: marketers who are still relying heavily on conventional direct mail are following a strategy that showed up before the Civil War.

Product coupons? First seen in 1886. TV spots? Prompting us to change channels for 74 years now. Even BOGO offers have been in our toolkit for a quarter-century.

It’s not their age, it’s the old-school thinking behind these tactics that can create problems.  And for brands focused on the emerging Millennial market, living in the past just isn’t an option.

As marketers shift their attention to Millennials, they’re learning quickly that these consumers want more from the brands they choose.

The 2015 Moosylvania Millennial Study lines out the new reality. These customers won’t answer your call to action, but they will take a call from a friend. Top brands move into the friend zone by helping Millennials look good, feel good and enjoy themselves, the study shows.

Millennials also prefer brands that reflect their values, giving strong preferences to those with a clear social conscience.

In this context, the “push” messages of the past begin to look like loud, boring, one-sided conversations. Not the best way to make friends.

If deeper engagement is the road to success, especially with Millennials, then strategies that don’t help us learn about each individual we reach are also not good enough. (How can you get close to someone you really don’t know?)

At American Litho, we’re introducing new promotional strategies that are more in  line with new realities. These approaches gather multiple data points about new customers, one interaction at a time.

The goal is to develop a 3D picture of the people engaging with your brand, capturing preferences you can use to share highly relevant messages with them over time. Here’s an example that begins with an offer delivered via packaging or direct mail.

• Targeted prospects are given the code for a series of free music downloads featuring artists that closely reflect your brand’s personality and known preferences among the target demographic.
• Those who respond are asked to give a new piece of data with each download.
• As they take advantage of multiple downloads, they in essence build a personal profile that might include age, gender, zip code, mobile phone number or email.

Music’s intrinsic value in building a positive memory structure around your brand has great value in itself. But what we love about this strategy is its efficiency. Product promotions move beyond the old linear model, looking more like ongoing conversations where we learn more with every offer made. With each engagement, new channels open and new facts are shared that help your brand return to its emerging friend base with offers that follow known preferences.

Measuring ROI is straightforward. Responses tell us which individuals and groups engaged with the music offerings, which tracks were preferred by which prospects and which product offers resonated most. Responses add to the growing profile of what we know about each individual and also what we know about larger segments of the total customer base.

Because there’s so much to know about reaching Millennials, I thought I’d pass along even more findings via this infographic. I found the recommendations coming from a study conducted by Yahoo, DigitasLBi, Razorfish and Tumblr especially helpful. In engaging young customers, researchers found that brands should set the mood, offer inspiration and use powerful references from popular culture. I can’t think of a better case for testing the effectiveness of music downloads for your brand.

If you’re ready to try this strategy out, we can help you create a multichannel program that will deliver maximum impact for your brand. We have the data analytics, format design, testing and production resources needed to take you from concept to successful launch and beyond. Let me know how what questions I can answer for you.

Ready to get started?

Contact us NOW – we’re here to help!

Dwayne Martinez is American Litho’s packaging and merchandising guru, offering insights and expertise gained through 30+ years in the business. Dwayne works hand-in-hand with the full ALitho team to create exciting, cost-effective packaging and merchandising solutions for both leading and emerging brands. 

"*" indicates required fields

Δ

The post Adopting a 3D customer acquisition strategy appeared first on Alitho.

We came home from last month’s National Postal Forum in Anaheim with fresh knowledge and ideas that we’re rapidly putting to work for you. Here’s how we’re working with Truman Pope and the American Litho postal logistics team to help you take advantage of the best opportunities.

When he wasn’t immersed in courses leading to his new Mail Design Professional designation with USPS, Truman was going deep on eInduction, the option that streamlines acceptance of drop shipments to give you greater speed and control over your mailings.

With eInduction, USPS uses surface visibility (SV) scanners to scan container barcodes at acceptance facilities. The process totally eliminates PS Forms 8125 and 8017, saving time on both ends. We can now prepare your shipment in-house, validate through our Detached Mail Unit and send it via cost-effective trucking options, knowing USPS will confirm the minute it arrives and take advantage of peaks and valleys in mailing volumes to handle your mailpieces with maximum efficiency.

Truman Pope (Center) with members of the ALitho lettershop team

Truman adds that eInduction helps Standard Mail perform better than ever, letting direct marketers choose a specific in-home date or a range of dates for strongest relevancy. It’s a reflection of USPS’s total commitment to high-tech solutions that will not only boost efficiency but also deliver true end-to-end visibility, giving you rich data to improve planning and results over time.

Though eInduction has been around since November 2013, the Postal Service reports that only half of all drop shipments are using it right now. We can’t figure out why that rate isn’t higher! If you’re ready to take full advantage of this option with 100% of your container mailings, ask us how.

Another great opportunity we came across is the 2015 Mail Drives Mobile Engagement Program, which will give you an upfront 2% postage discount on Standard Mail letters and flats bearing a mobile barcode or other print-to-mobile technology leading the recipient to a mobile-optimized website where they can complete a transaction.

Highlights of how it works:

• Mailpiece recipients must be able to purchase an advertised product from the website.

• The mailpiece must include text next to the barcode or image, explaining how consumers can scan or access the site and what they will find on the landing page.

• Mailers can register now through December 31, 2015 and earn discounts on mailings sent from July 1 through December 31.

• All Standard Mail letters and flats and Nonprofit Standard Mail letters and flats are eligible.

Mobile engagement has been high on our agenda for some time now – and we’re pleased to show you this cool demo. Just text ALITHO to 847-00 and you’ll see how we’ve made 3 favorite print engagement devices fresh and relevant for today.

How can our integrated direct marketing team help you get more from every mailing?

Contact us NOW – we’re here to help!

Frank Arostegui and Sam Dentino are American Litho’s dynamic duo of direct marketing, bringing more than 40 years of experience to their roles. They work closely with Truman Pope, our senior director of lettershop operations, to serve clients in retail, financial services, insurance, consumer goods manufacturing, non-profit development and many other fields.

"*" indicates required fields

Δ

The post Leveraging the Best Ideas from the National Postal Forum appeared first on Alitho.

I know you’ve seen that classic Saturday Night Live skit with Christopher Walken as the crazed music producer who just KNOWS his band’s new recording will go platinum if Will Ferrell can give him more cowbell.

Walken is a pretty versatile guy, having appeared in 100+ films and TV shows. He’s one of only 2 actors with an open invitation from Lorne Michaels to appear on SNL anytime. He’s done it all, from Shakespeare on stage to Pulp Fiction to Wayne’s World 2.

At ALitho, we like to think of ourselves that same way. You won’t find an Oscar on our mantle, but we’re proud of the awards we’ve earned for integrated marketing programs that build brands and sales.

Our clients know that web and print together put a LOT more cowbell into their marketing programs. A well-crafted direct response program that works with mobile and in-store elements drives customers to stores and websites like no other combination – even when you’re targeting millennials, who marketing researchers say are never more than 3 feet from a smartphone or tablet.

Why does this approach work so incredibly well? Top brands have given us a few insights lately.

If you ask IKEA, it’s because thumbing through a vibrant, well-designed catalog is the ultimate user-friendly experience, a point they make brilliantly in in their bookbook video.

JCPenney, which recently rebooted its print catalog program, expects to benefit from the fact that print puts products in context, delivering deeper detail and visual data than a web page can.

Research backs those who put their faith in print. In fact, studies show that more than 90% of all web purchases are made by customers who have a printed mailer or catalog in hand!

But before I leave you thinking that just adding print to your multichannel strategy is enough, let’s take a closer look. It turns out that mailing data is the true superstar in capturing customer response.

It’s all about getting personal. Mailers imprinted with customer and prospect names are opened 70% of the time, while those with address only are opened by only 22% of all recipients.

So you triple the chances that your offer will be read just by getting the recipient’s name on the piece. But for maximum effect, you want to go further in mining customer data.

Many top brands are seeing amazing response rates when they use a specialty format with nested, 4-color images. They are leveraging customer purchasing insights to deliver unique offers within these panels. The variable imprint is determined by each individual’s buying history for supreme relevance and appeal.

We’ve seen response rates climb anywhere from 9% to 40% when variable imprinting is used to target known preferences, especially when paired with other special effects.

This is the perfect way to think about maximizing sales through your loyalty program. And with more than 3.3 billion loyalty program memberships in the U.S. – an average of 29 per household – it’s likely that your most engaged customers are a growing focus of your total marketing spend.

Without a doubt, you’ll want to work with a team that has the data analytics and advanced printing and personalization capabilities to make your mailing a hit. All of which makes American Litho a great choice. We’ve developed a full circle of services for multichannel marketing that will put your brand in the spotlight.

So whether you’re launching or re-launching your product catalog, reinvigorating your mailing program or looking for effective packaging and merchandising tie-ins, we’re ready when you need more cowbell.

Ready to get started? 

Contact us NOW – we’re here to help! 

"*" indicates required fields

Δ

The post Multichannel marketing: when you gotta have more cowbell appeared first on Alitho.

If your head is spinning as you watch the ongoing parade of mergers in the paper industry, you’re not alone.

We’ve been keeping a close eye on things as the marriage of Verso and NewPage hit the headlines — a deal so big it prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to order the sale of Verso’s Rumford, Maine mill to Catalyst Paper Corp. in order to settle antitrust concerns.

Earlier, the Unisource-International Paper deal that created Veritiv captured an equal amount of attention, as did the merger between MeadWestvaco and RockTenn.

Chris Joyaux, American Litho’s paper industry expert, tells us that paper prices have been surprisingly stable during this period of consolidation. But he points out that the seasonal discounts we used to see at key times of the year have all but disappeared, adding that it’s hard to tell if we’ve seen the full effects of the various mergers yet.

Since paper accounts for 30% to 40% of the total costs for all print jobs we handle, we make it our responsibility to monitor the markets and prepare for price hikes and supply chain disruptions, which can have major negative impact on your packaging, merchandising and direct marketing programs.

Here is the 3-point strategy we recommend to all American Litho clients in good times and bad. Applying these principles consistently can lead to substantial cost savings.

Many of the national brands we work with have their own paper management programs in place. Others rely on us to help them forecast paper needs and, where appropriate, lock in prices with major suppliers, arranging for just-in-time delivery as jobs hit the presses.

Of course, there are times it’s better to buy as you go. For example, Chris points out that stockpiling the standard offset goods that typically go into production of school supplies might not make sense if you’re launching a 6-month campaign in summer when demand and prices are highest. Better to buy what’s needed for the first few months and then reevaluate in early fall when prices may return to normal.

Evaluating print jobs for maximum press efficiency is absolutely key. American Litho’s secret weapon in this area is our format optimization team, who will analyze your project to identify improvements that can save paper and press time. And since paper savings can also mean weight and postage savings, this service is one that direct marketers and many others rely on to keep their costs in line.

American Litho’s partnerships with major mills enable us to keep many high-quality web stocks on hand at our plant in Carol Stream, Illinois. Thanks to our new sheeting capabilities, we can cut roll goods to size for sheet-fed production – a flexible approach that has already proven helpful to many top brands.

Searching for paper alternatives when it makes sense and recommending cost-saving changes while your job is still in the planning stages can save thousands of dollars. We’re all about doing things better, faster and with greater impact.

If you’re worried about paper costs for any upcoming project, working with Chris and the ALitho staff, we’ll help you find the solutions you need.

Ready to get started? 

Contact us NOW – we’re here to help!

Sam Dentino and Frank Arostegui are American Litho’s dynamic duo of direct marketing, bringing more than 40 years of combined experience to their roles. They work with the full ALitho team to serve clients in retail, financial services, insurance, consumer goods manufacturing, non-profit development and many other fields.

"*" indicates required fields

Δ

The post Mega-mergers, paper costs and your next print job appeared first on Alitho.

Hey, we all know life can be tough. But if you’re the brand manager responsible for a new consumer product launch this year, you’re really in the hot seat.

Packaged goods companies set the threshold for new product success at about $100 million in sales within the first 12 months. Yet only 2% of new brands actually reach this golden summit – which is probably why you’re having trouble sleeping at night.

To understand why it’s so hard, it’s helpful to remember that:

• The typical American family turns to the same 150 products for up to 85% of its household needs, so every new brand must burst through a brick wall of old buying habits.
• Any product, new or established, has just 3 seconds to grab a buyer’s attention.
• Decades of research by Perception Research Services (PRS) shows that 1/3 of all products are never even seen by the average shopper.

What about the ads, displays and promotions designed to help new products stand out? The news there isn’t much better.

Residents of U.S. cities see up to 5,000 ad messages every single day. This creates the “fatigue factor” every brand must overcome. And, thanks to new marketing technologies and channels that pop up every day, our collective resistance to ad messages just keeps growing.

Before you get too discouraged, remind yourself that the fundamentals of marketing still apply. As Janine Heffelfinger, director of brand design at General Mills, says: humans continue to shop with their eyes. So no matter where we reach them, eye appeal still wins.

Consider that a nationally distributed product generates 570 million impressions per year just by virtue of its presence in the retail environment. Each impression equals one consumer who saw your product, whether or not she bought it.

The challenge, then, becomes simpler. Your first objective is to make every single impression count.

As PRS President Scott Young says, we’re looking for an “increased percentage of people seeing you and actively considering you … if you think of Pringles in a sea of [potato chip] bags, that’s a very different look.”

In order of importance, here are the 3 crucial elements that make your product stand out in the retail landscape:

1. Package color. A shade that sets you apart from competing products and lines up with your unique brand story will win.
2. Package shape. Closely interrelated with color, the shape of your package can magnetize the buyer’s eye.
3. Logo. The “face” of your new brand, this graphic goes a long way in conveying the heart of your brand persona and the values that support it.

Unseen equals unsold, so you need to work these elements hard. Or as a recent Packaging World case study put it, think of your package as a stage where buyers can see drama from every angle.

The packaging and merchandising team at ALitho will help you work through the questions every brand manager must answer before launching a new product or line extension.

Does your package design convey excitement? Do your logo, copy and graphics reflect your brand story? Can special printing effects or a unique package shape give you an edge?

Of course, there’s more to success than packaging alone. Do you have an integrated plan that blends best practices from point-of-sale through direct mail, mobile engagement and more? Do you have a partner that can help you leverage your total marketing spend?

Yep – entering the market can be stressful stuff. But with the right planning, you and your new product can achieve success.

If you need a team whose expertise won’t let you down, we’re ready to help.

Contact us NOW – we’re here to help!

Dwayne Martinez is American Litho’s packaging and merchandising guru, offering insights and expertise gained through 30+ years in the business. Dwayne works hand-in-hand with the full ALitho team to create exciting, cost-effective packaging and merchandising solutions for both leading and emerging brands. Reach out to him via our Contact Us page.

"*" indicates required fields

Δ

The post Easing the stress of a new product launch appeared first on Alitho.

Clients often come to American Litho for advice on the best way to design and produce a given print project. How exactly do we figure that out?

Whether we’re talking about a direct response campaign, a major sales promotion launch or the package for your new consumer product, determining the right press environment is often the first step.

I’ve always felt that selecting the right press for the job is a lot like choosing a new car.

Looking for style and luxury? New choices are rolling off the floor every day. Need speed, efficiency, agile handling? U.S. automakers can deliver that, too.

It all depends on your specific requirements, and at ALitho, we follow a consultative process to help you choose exactly the right vehicle for each project.

Automakers came up with the “crossover” category when they designed vehicles that blended the toughness of an SUV with the styling of a sedan.

Interestingly enough, printers use that term too. In our world, it means the point at which it makes sense to switch from one printing environment to another for sake of speed, cost, quality or any combination of the three.

Determining the crossover point for a given job was fairly simple in the past. It looked something like this:

• Generally, large jobs with complex features and fast turnaround times went on web offset presses, where in-line production methods and superior press speed saved both time and money.
• If a job was smaller and involved fewer steps, it was probably more cost-effective to run on a sheet-fed offset press. Any finishing steps were handled in a separate bindery area.
• Projects that called for supreme color control, special stocks or unusual sizes often went to the more flexible sheet-fed environment.
• Digital printing offered the fastest output but, until recently, couldn’t compete with the quality of offset printing, so it was reserved for time-sensitive jobs with modest specs.

Recent advances in print technology have all but erased the old crossover calculations. In fact, many experts say all 3 press environments can compete with one another in delivering fast, high-quality output. Consider:

• Digital presses now deliver amazing quality that often rivals offset printing.

• Both digital and sheet-fed environments have benefited from new equipment that can be configured to fit the demands of a job, making them nearly as flexible as our in-line web press processes.

• Newer sheet-fed presses feature simpler make-ready processes and faster speeds, meaning they can now compete with the bigger web presses for medium-to-large jobs.

• In much the same way, state-of-the-art web presses with new color controls, automatic plate changers and other enhancements can handle jobs once reserved for sheet-fed production, delivering fast, agile results for jobs as small as 5,000 to 10,000 pieces.

Just like choosing your new wheels, the fundamentals still apply. Turnaround time, budget and quality remain paramount. ALitho’s goal is to give you the widest possible range of options, and to that end, we’re always updating our capabilities.

We recently added a state-of-the-art sheeter to our sheet-fed operations in Carol Stream, Illinois. Now, high-quality paper that we purchase in rolls – once appropriate only for web presses – can be cut to run on our sheet-fed presses. Many clients have benefited from the flexibility and cost savings of this approach.

We’ve also enhanced our short-run digital presses to move our output closer and to offset quality. So, for example, when you’re exploring a new marketing concept and you want rapid production of test materials, digital is now an excellent choice.

We will soon have double-web capabilities, giving us the horsepower to run complex jobs such as direct response campaigns with unprecedented quality, speed and flexibility.

Our new Kodak S20 600 DPI imaging heads give you the freedom to bring unique offers to each customer with dazzling, 4-color quality.

When you bring a new project to ALitho, we listen carefully to the full story before we begin to discuss solutions with you.

What are your brand-building objectives? What’s the right combination of speed, cost and style for this particular challenge? Are you open to new formats that might reduce run times or decrease printing or postal costs?

Only when we understand your goals can we determine the right vehicle for you. But one thing is certain: we want to be your best choice every time.

For a thoughtful analysis of your next job, get in touch and let’s talk!

"*" indicates required fields

Δ

The post Web, sheet-fed or digital? What drives the decision now appeared first on Alitho.